[jackiecanev2]

Well I don't post here much... hardly ever, actually. But I just had my molds done with my audiologist and placed my order for my ES3X's. Now I just have to wait 2 weeks...

 

[Rdr. Seraphim]

Here are some more impressions re the ES3X.

I now have over 150 hours on my ES3X/Pico combo. The sound continues to be smooth, even and well balanced. I have compared these to the 650's the ER4P's and my SR-125s. The ES3X sonic signature can be best described as transparent, even, three dimensional, layered, and lush.

Perhaps more revealing is a comparison with my Merlin TSM-MXe loudspeakers. They are more alike than dissimilar. The midrange is striking in both transducers in fullness, body, weight and dynamics. Highs in the ES3X are different in that they seem lower in level, but with increased detail and resolution. Recording differences are more readily apparent via the ES3X than with the MXe. It is in the low bass that the ES3X is so clearly superior, both in detail, timbre and extension. Alone, the MXe is flat to 55Hz, with a gentle downward slope (sealed enclosure) 10db down at 35Hz. The Velodyne DD-10 augments the MXe in the lower bass region. Still, the ES3X are absolutely FLAT in the nethermost regions, while providing excellent timbrel details about the instrument.

Listening to music via headphones is already a very enlightening experience. With the ES3X, resolution and detail are very revealing, yet musical. Nuances in the recording chain are readily discernible, including low level hum from ground loops, RF bleed, and print-through on remastered music from original tapes. Other important musical cues like cymbal swishes, fingers on guitar strings, vocal intonation, and pitch, along with the recorded venue are all there.

Chesky, Reference Recordings, Dorian, Delos, and Mapleshade recordings are very natural, high resolution and the ES3X show these recordings to be some of the very best.

Have I noticed a difference between new and hundreds of hours of listening? I think so, but I can't help wonder if I'm adjusting to the sound, rather than vice versa. It could be that the drivers are loosening up (they are electro-mechanical). I "think" the highs are more relaxed, but it varies by recording. This is most prominent with percussive leading edge attacks like rim shots and cymbal splashes. The lower mid-range seems more open. Vocals continue to be three-dimensional, almost holographic, regardless of gender. Female voices are magical, but so too is the male voice. I can't remember hearing male voices so full and round. Try listening to the baritone on "Works by William Grant Still," Videmus New World Records #80399. Uh, Wow!

Anyways, I'm still enjoying this little combo.

Now off for a little R&R, with my new music system in tow...

 

[music_4321]

Excellent write-up - very informative! Thank you!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rdr. Seraphim /img/forum/go_quote.gif Here are some more impressions re the ES3X. I now have over 150 hours on my ES3X/Pico combo. The sound continues to be smooth, even and well balanced. I have compared these to the 650's the ER4P's and my SR-125s. The ES3X sonic signature can be best described as transparent, even, three dimensional, layered, and lush. Perhaps more revealing is a comparison with my Merlin TSM-MXe loudspeakers. They are more alike than dissimilar. The midrange is striking in both transducers in fullness, body, weight and dynamics. Highs in the ES3X are different in that they seem lower in level, but with increased detail and resolution. Recording differences are more readily apparent via the ES3X than with the MXe. It is in the low bass that the ES3X is so clearly superior, both in detail, timbre and extension. Alone, the MXe is flat to 55Hz, with a gentle downward slope (sealed enclosure) 10db down at 35Hz. The Velodyne DD-10 augments the MXe in the lower bass region. Still, the ES3X are absolutely FLAT in the nethermost regions, while providing excellent timbrel details about the instrument. Listening to music via headphones is already a very enlightening experience. With the ES3X, resolution and detail are very revealing, yet musical. Nuances in the recording chain are readily discernible, including low level hum from ground loops, RF bleed, and print-through on remastered music from original tapes. Other important musical cues like cymbal swishes, fingers on guitar strings, vocal intonation, and pitch, along with the recorded venue are all there. Chesky, Reference Recordings, Dorian, Delos, and Mapleshade recordings are very natural, high resolution and the ES3X show these recordings to be some of the very best. Have I noticed a difference between new and hundreds of hours of listening? I think so, but I can't help wonder if I'm adjusting to the sound, rather than vice versa. It could be that the drivers are loosening up (they are electro-mechanical). I "think" the highs are more relaxed, but it varies by recording. This is most prominent with percussive leading edge attacks like rim shots and cymbal splashes. The lower mid-range seems more open. Vocals continue to be three-dimensional, almost holographic, regardless of gender. Female voices are magical, but so too is the male voice. I can't remember hearing male voices so full and round. Try listening to the baritone on "Works by William Grant Still," Videmus New World Records #80399. Uh, Wow! Anyways, I'm still enjoying this little combo. Now off for a little R&R, with my new music system in tow...

 

[Zanth]

Can I join this little club? My ES3X's arrived today. Candy Blue baby! I've been reading threads about these IEM's all night. Listening to music and I keep coming across two words. These two words are very important to me and are actually the most important words I look for when anyone describes the music coming through some gear. They are: organic and natural.

If music is not organic or natural sounding then in the end, I won't find myself spinning disc after disc, laying their hour after hour doing nothing but drifting away, deep into the music.

I've had plenty of headphones come through my doors, spend some time with me and then part. Why? Because although some phones may excel in one thing or another over what I own, in the end, the music never really sounding like music. Sure there were sweet sounds, sounds I could dissect and scrutinize over. Better detail here, attack this, transiet that...but in the end, there wasn't a homogeneous flow to the notes coming together to continually provide music with the realism and organics that I customarily hear when I'm listening to live tunes.

Well, after owning the Ety 4 series for a quite a while and then the UM2's for a few years after that, I can honestly say that I'm done with IEM's. This is it. Again, there might be an IEM that does A B or C better, however slight, but ultimately, unless an IEM company can figure out how to get the pinnae involved somehow, I don't want for anything more. I have absolutely beautiful music coming out of my 2G Nano with highly quality mp3s. Not even lossless! Tomorrow I'll queue up some records and enjoy the ES3X's with vinyl and my Ear HP4.

I'm spoiled, this is insane sound for the money. I'll be writing up a full review in a couple of weeks when I get a handle on their sound, but for now, after reading what HPA, digi and Rdr. Seraphim have written, I'm not sure there is much more to add. But I'll try.

Dammit, I think I need a portable amp/dac combo now.

 

[PeterDLai]

Must... resist...

P.S. Zanth: any pictures? I'm curious how the candy blue turned out.

 

[digihead]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zanth /img/forum/go_quote.gif Can I join this little club? My ES3X's arrived today. Candy Blue baby! I've been reading threads about these IEM's all night. Listening to music and I keep coming across two words. These two words are very important to me and are actually the most important words I look for when anyone describes the music coming through some gear. They are: organic and natural. If music is not organic or natural sounding then in the end, I won't find myself spinning disc after disc, laying their hour after hour doing nothing but drifting away, deep into the music. I've had plenty of headphones come through my doors, spend some time with me and then part. Why? Because although some phones may excel in one thing or another over what I own, in the end, the music never really sounding like music. Sure there were sweet sounds, sounds I could dissect and scrutinize over. Better detail here, attack this, transiet that...but in the end, there wasn't a homogeneous flow to the notes coming together to continually provide music with the realism and organics that I customarily hear when I'm listening to live tunes. Well, after owning the Ety 4 series for a quite a while and then the UM2's for a few years after that, I can honestly say that I'm done with IEM's. This is it. Again, there might be an IEM that does A B or C better, however slight, but ultimately, unless an IEM company can figure out how to get the pinnae involved somehow, I don't want for anything more. I have absolutely beautiful music coming out of my 2G Nano with highly quality mp3s. Not even lossless! Tomorrow I'll queue up some records and enjoy the ES3X's with vinyl and my Ear HP4. I'm spoiled, this is insane sound for the money. I'll be writing up a full review in a couple of weeks when I get a handle on their sound, but for now, after reading what HPA, digi and Rdr. Seraphim have written, I'm not sure there is much more to add. But I'll try. Dammit, I think I need a portable amp/dac combo now.

Fantastic write up. I couldn't agree more. Time and time again I grab for the ES3x and P-51 combo. Such magic. I never really grasped what 'organic and natural' meant in sound, it just felt like something was always missing or slightly off in sound reproduction. I no longer feel that way after having listened to the ES3x. I feel like I am listening to music, not a recording. It is quite an incredible experience.

Congrats on the new ES3x. I am absolutely fascinated by mine.

 

[Zanth]

Quote:

Originally Posted by PeterDLai /img/forum/go_quote.gif Must... resist... P.S. Zanth: any pictures? I'm curious how the candy blue turned out.

I'll take some pics tonight. They look quite nice. I was random, I left it up to Westone

I just said, hey, whatever you think looks cool. Glad I didn't end up with brown!

 

[EyeAmEye]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zanth /img/forum/go_quote.gif I'll take some pics tonight. They look quite nice. I was random, I left it up to Westone I just said, hey, whatever you think looks cool. Glad I didn't end up with brown!

What's wrong with brown?

I had a C3 that was brown with black swirls that looked fantastic (used to be the picture used on hearyourself.com, not there anymore). Unfortunately, it met a very untimely demise

Thanks everyone for the great reviews. I've had the ESX3 on order since Feb 23, but have had numerous delays in getting impressions done. Finally sent them off the beginning of this week and am anxiously waiting for their arrival.

For the ES3X, I went with an opaque white shell with kings below. Red for right, blue for left.

 

[Zanth]

Quote:

Originally Posted by digihead /img/forum/go_quote.gif Fantastic write up. I couldn't agree more. Time and time again I grab for the ES3x and P-51 combo. Such magic. I never really grasped what 'organic and natural' meant in sound, it just felt like something was always missing or slightly off in sound reproduction. I no longer feel that way after having listened to the ES3x. I feel like I am listening to music, not a recording. It is quite an incredible experience. Congrats on the new ES3x. I am absolutely fascinated by mine.

Thanks

I'm fascinated as well. Two things strike me at least while listening with the Nano. The first: hiss from the Nano, I gotta curb that some how. The second: despite their high sensitivity, I think an amp may well be suited for them, for some extra swing. How is the impedance with these phones? Is it high?

Last night I was having some fit issues. My left ear in particular started to hurt. I was pretty sad about that until I read the little booklet and slapped my forehead. I didn't twist in enough and I never got that "snap in" effect described by Westone. I tried this this morning at work and they are crazy comfortable. I'm not sure I would sleep with them, they are harder and larger than the UM2's plus they are more expensive. UM2's are still fantastic for laying on my side falling asleep. I'll stick with them for this task. That said, if it were not for the bunch of meetings I have today, I believe I could sit and comfortably listen to music all day long, 8+ hours without feeling the need to take them out. I went everything standard, so I guess I have the heat-sensitive tips? Whatever the case, very comfortable. Microphonics do not exist with this new cable. Even the UM2's had a hint of it with the well braided cable, but this new cable = zero microphonics. I wonder if I could sport these at the gym tonight while I cycle? I'm gonna try

As I listen more today, particularly classical works (Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony) I find that nothing jumps out at me. The mids are nice, the highs are nice, there isn't much in the bass region with this symphony yet but everything sounds balanced. Not ruler flat, that is, I don't experience the same feelings as I do when listening to studio monitors, Etys or HP-1000's (haven't listened to K1000's). They seem to break the flow of music but as another person described, makes one feel like one is viewing the world as if under fluorescent lights in an operating room. With these it evokes the feeling that one is listening during a nice sunny day. Everything feels right, everything gives off the right colours. Nothing seems fake. I think this is perhaps what I have tried to explain in other reviews but had a hard to getting across. Omega II's, (well, electrostats in general), HP-1000's, Etys and a bunch of other phones trying to achieve the same thing always sounded fake or at least had hints of unreality, either being hyper real or lacking enough stuff to get REAL across.

My other preferred phones excel at getting "real" across. Maybe not perfectly, but better than what other headphones do. Mostly because they are mid-range strong and the midrange is where the life of the music is. Although the ES3X's don't bump the mids, they do have a sweet sound, a wonderful warm sound, flowing, liquid and organic. Of course, the highs have that too, and the lows. It just seems to work very well together.

Having read through the Westone 3 thread over the year and a bit, with so many folks irritated with delays and then further delays with the ES3X's (though not much past the 3's) one might have given up and moved on to another company. But I think that what Westone did was put their rep on the line to provide something magical for the listener. It takes a strongly principled company to declare that what they've produced really doesn't match what they wanted to achieve and instead of waiting to implement in a new product, they instead scratch what they have and start again until it is done right.

The delay, at least with the ES3X was definitely worth it. What a precious sound. This is a sound I value and again, only with a 2G Nano and some lame V0 mp3s. I'm really looking forward to this evening when I can hook them up to the vinyl setup.

Oh, the soundstage is quite large, largest I've heard from IEM's (but my experience with these are limited to 5 pairs and never a custom).

Anyhow, more impressions will follow as I digest their sound.

 

[vkvedam]

Unable to resist, BTW here's a question for Zanth, do they compliment PS1000 or go beyond them in your musical imagination.

 

[Morph201]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zanth /img/forum/go_quote.gif I'll take some pics tonight. They look quite nice. I was random, I left it up to Westone I just said, hey, whatever you think looks cool. Glad I didn't end up with brown!

Unfortunately, I found out AFTER THE FACT, that 'candy red' is their 'cool' color, BUT somehow that is not on their color selection chart!

Congrats!

 

[HeadphoneAddict]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zanth /img/forum/go_quote.gif Thanks I'm fascinated as well. Two things strike me at least while listening with the Nano. The first: hiss from the Nano, I gotta curb that some how. The second: despite their high sensitivity, I think an amp may well be suited for them, for some extra swing. How is the impedance with these phones? Is it high? 56 ohms if I recall correctly. Last night I was having some fit issues. My left ear in particular started to hurt. I was pretty sad about that until I read the little booklet and slapped my forehead. I didn't twist in enough and I never got that "snap in" effect described by Westone. I tried this this morning at work and they are crazy comfortable. I'm not sure I would sleep with them, they are harder and larger than the UM2's plus they are more expensive. UM2's are still fantastic for laying on my side falling asleep. I'll stick with them for this task. That said, if it were not for the bunch of meetings I have today, I believe I could sit and comfortably listen to music all day long, 8+ hours without feeling the need to take them out. I went everything standard, so I guess I have the heat-sensitive tips? Whatever the case, very comfortable. Microphonics do not exist with this new cable. Even the UM2's had a hint of it with the well braided cable, but this new cable = zero microphonics. I wonder if I could sport these at the gym tonight while I cycle? I'm gonna try I have done 6-7 hours at a time until late at night for bedtime, without any discomfort. They are more comfortable than my other 3 pair of custom IEM, and retain their seal the whole time without having to muck with them occasionally to get back the comfort. As I listen more today, particularly classical works (Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony) I find that nothing jumps out at me. The mids are nice, the highs are nice, there isn't much in the bass region with this symphony yet but everything sounds balanced. Not ruler flat, that is, I don't experience the same feelings as I do when listening to studio monitors, Etys or HP-1000's (haven't listened to K1000's). They seem to break the flow of music but as another person described, makes one feel like one is viewing the world as if under fluorescent lights in an operating room. With these it evokes the feeling that one is listening during a nice sunny day. Everything feels right, everything gives off the right colours. Nothing seems fake. I think this is perhaps what I have tried to explain in other reviews but had a hard to getting across. Omega II's, (well, electrostats in general), HP-1000's, Etys and a bunch of other phones trying to achieve the same thing always sounded fake or at least had hints of unreality, either being hyper real or lacking enough stuff to get REAL across. You just gotta pair the stats with the right amp, and then they get closer to the "real" color, such as with my Woo GES which is less "operating room" colors than the Blue Hawaii I tried them with, My other preferred phones excel at getting "real" across. Maybe not perfectly, but better than what other headphones do. Mostly because they are mid-range strong and the midrange is where the life of the music is. Although the ES3X's don't bump the mids, they do have a sweet sound, a wonderful warm sound, flowing, liquid and organic. Of course, the highs have that too, and the lows. It just seems to work very well together. What are the "other preferred phones" that excel at getting real accross? I find that to be my O2 Mk2 and Jade on Woo GES, and sometimes my HE60 or my HD600 balanced, for example. Having read through the Westone 3 thread over the year and a bit, with so many folks irritated with delays and then further delays with the ES3X's (though not much past the 3's) one might have given up and moved on to another company. But I think that what Westone did was put their rep on the line to provide something magical for the listener. It takes a strongly principled company to declare that what they've produced really doesn't match what they wanted to achieve and instead of waiting to implement in a new product, they instead scratch what they have and start again until it is done right. The delay, at least with the ES3X was definitely worth it. What a precious sound. This is a sound I value and again, only with a 2G Nano and some lame V0 mp3s. I'm really looking forward to this evening when I can hook them up to the vinyl setup. Definitely try more sources. Most portable amps will have a lower noise floor than the MP3 players and iPod headphone out, and with an IEM this sensitive it is not a surprise that some players will hiss unless you use a volume attenuator. My iPhone 3G is not bad. So far my 5.5G video is the only one that the hiss is truly bothersome. Most of my listening is with the portable DAC/amps on my Macbook, but I will try again later with my 1G, 2G, 3G and 4G nano as well. Oh, the soundstage is quite large, largest I've heard from IEM's (but my experience with these are limited to 5 pairs and never a custom). Anyhow, more impressions will follow as I digest their sound.

Glad you are enjoying them, and keep the updates coming - it is fun to read them.

 

[PeterDLai]

Quote:

Originally Posted by EyeAmEye /img/forum/go_quote.gif What's wrong with brown? I had a C3 that was brown with black swirls that looked fantastic (used to be the picture used on hearyourself.com, not there anymore). Unfortunately, it met a very untimely demise Thanks everyone for the great reviews. I've had the ESX3 on order since Feb 23, but have had numerous delays in getting impressions done. Finally sent them off the beginning of this week and am anxiously waiting for their arrival. For the ES3X, I went with an opaque white shell with kings below. Red for right, blue for left.

I definitely want to hear your opinion on these as I recall you once preferred the Sleek Audio SA6 to the UE11.

I have a feeling though that with the kings design on your ES3X that these will truly be the king of all IEMs for you.

 

[digihead]

Zanth- I think they really come to life with an amp. I have also found them to be revealing or better said, sound even better with lossless files. Best portable amp I have heard with them so far is the P-51 vs the SR71a and tomahawk. Something very special about the combo. They also really like my iMod as well so I look forward to your impressions when listening to vinyl.

 

[i_don't_know]

So...


I don't have the time to read through 24 pages of posts, so I'll just ask my questions.


1) How does the sound signature itself compare with the PFE?
2) Has Westone extended the cable length up to the y-split so it doesn't brush your jaw anymore?
3) If these really do have a bigger, better soundstage than the IE8, then exactly HOW big and realistic is it? Are we talking true out-of-head sounds here, or just very airy in-your-head sounds?
4) Are the earpieces silicone or that hard acrylic material?

Thank you. I don't have the money yet, but in a few years' time, I'm thinking about getting either these or the ACS T1 as my first custom. I want something with a similar sound signature to the PFE, but slightly more "human" or "dynamic", and with better soundstage and instrument decay/timbre/etc.